Quentin Tarantino on the gruesome scene that “blew my fucking mind”
Quentin Tarantino has always been heavily associated with graphic violence, which perhaps feels reductive. To so heavily focus on this one area would be to ignore the many far more interesting aspects of Tarantino’s films, such as their electric dialogue, non-linear storytelling and abundance of pop culture references. Besides, several of Tarantino’s films, such as Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood aren’t even that violent.
Still, like it or not, graphic violence is the first thing many think of when Tarantino’s name is mentioned, and there is a strong argument to be made that he was the one who brought graphic violence into mainstream cinema, a thought which no doubt brings Tarantino himself a lot of joy. As such, it’s interesting to hear him discussing some of his first experiences with on-screen violence.
Tarantino is perhaps one of the biggest cinephiles out there, and given how much of a role homage and pastiche play in his movies, the director’s discussions of the films that shaped him are always compelling. One film which he has highlighted is A Man Called Horse, a 1970 western film starring Irish acting legend Richard Harris (who modern audiences probably know best as Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films) as an English aristocrat held captive by the Sioux.
The film might be fairly obscure today, but Tarantino has often championed and highlighted lesser-known films, and he speaks warmly of this one. He speaks fondly of going to the cinema in 1970, when he was still a small boy, and said he saw “a lot of intense shit” that year.
A Man Called Horse seems to have lingered in particular, and he particularly highlighted a scene where Harris’ lead is made to do a rite involving eagle claws through the chest. Tarantino said that this scene “blew my fucking mind.”
Tarantino is a huge fan of Western cinema and he has paid homage to this genre many times throughout his films, most notably in Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. These films represented Tarantino making his own entries into the genre he loves so much, albeit with his own twist on things.
It’s likely that this film was on his mind when he made those Western homages, and while the eagle claws scene in A Man Called Horse might’ve been violent for its day, it’s safe to say that Tarantino outdid that many times over when it came to making his own Westerns. In particular, Django Unchained might just be the most violent of all his films.
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